The War of 1812 document exhibit

Throughout New Brunswick’s history, its politics, economy, and social well-
being -- our destiny or fate if you will -- have been tied to factors beyond its borders.
Conflicts, economic calamity, or prosperity did not originate in the region but the
colony and later province was enveloped by these outside forces. New Brunswick, like
the rest of the Maritimes, might be considered an asset or a liability in determining a
solution when conflicts arose but the likely impact on the colony was a negligible factor
in negotiated settlements. The consequences to New Brunswick in such cases however
constituted major shifts in the colony’s history.

The War of 1812(1812-1814) demonstrated such forces at work. The War of 1812
was a derivative of the protracted hostilities between France and Great Britain
commonly referred to as the Napoleonic Wars. As Britain and France attempted to
restrict the supply of goods reaching their respective shores by blocking trade routes
and intercepting shipping, other countries were drawn into the conflict. Chief among
the countries from the New Brunswick perspective was the United States. The
escalating British zeal in creating trade embargoes and conducting their naval blockades
intensified hostilities. The Americans were rankled by Britain’s broad definition of
what constituted contraband items in the cargo of American commercial shipping, the
searching of American vessels for deserters, and the impressment of American citizens.
These were at least the professed triggers that led the Americans to declare war on
Great Britain and by extension, the British North American colonies, including New
Brunswick.

Although the marine actions of the British were the provocations that propelled
the British and Americans to war, there were several ancillary motives on the American
side to pursue a confrontation – British espionage had embarrassed the American
government, British support or encouragement of First Nations resistance to American
westward expansion was an irritant, and there were several nagging issues and
attitudes lingering from the War of Independence, such as commercial activities south
of the St. Lawrence River and unsettled Loyalist claims. In addition, some American
factions had designs on the British North America colonies, while others looked at the
Spanish holdings to the south in the same way and Spain was an ally of Britain in the
European theatre.

Of course sentiment about the war was not unanimous on either side of the
border. New England strongly opposed the war and the various interdictions leading
up to the war because its economy was closely tied to trade both with Europe and the
coastal British American Colonies. The Maritimes had a similar bent. During the three
decades following the War of Independence, Britain had steered a course of placating
the Americans on issues concerning trade to the detriment of commerce in the
Maritimes. In the five years prior to 1812 the rhetoric and counterbalancing embargoes
and restrictions by Britain and the United States created an ambiguous undercurrent
that fostered opportunity for coastal trade. Despite the constraint of trade orchestrated
by Britain and the Americans, both sides realized that the very trade they were banning
needed to occur. As a result ports in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, especially Saint
John, St. Andrews, Halifax, and Shelburne, became points of transfer to circumvent the
trade restrictions, which prevented the direct shipment of goods between Britain and
the United States. Some of these contrivances may not have been strictly legal but they
forged a profitable enterprise and both Governments looked the other way. So when
war was declared in 1812 it is not surprising there was a desire in New Brunswick and
New England to continue the prosperity of the years leading up to 1812. It is little
wonder that this would create some incongruity as New Brunswick attempted to profit
through privateering and clandestine trade and maintain some kind of peaceful
relationship with its bordering American territory, while the parent nation of each were
at war.

The documents available here provide some insights on the activities and longer
term results of the War of 1812 on New Brunswick.